On Saturday, 6 November 2004, Division 13, D1-SR, hosted a Special Event Ham Radio Station, call sign K2G, commemorating the 65th Anniversary of the USCG Auxiliary and the International Search and Rescue (ISAR) competition.

Joined by members from Division 1, 25 Auxiliarists enjoyed a great day of fellowship and cross-divisional team building. The participants “talked” to over 250 ham radio stations (amateur radio) from all over the United States, Europe, the Caribbean Sea, and more!

We started the day before, preparing for this great event by assembling the antennas. The four high frequency (HF) radio stations, that would work the event, would use these antennas. As bad luck would have it, the wind was so bad that we were only able to erect a wire antenna. We arose early Saturday, the day of the event, and finished antenna construction (large vertical and 3 element, triband beam antennas).

After a quick briefing, the sound of voices calling “CQ CQ CQ” {ham lingo for general call for anyone to answer} echoed throughout our communication center. We even had a low power Morse code station in operation.

Everyone helped in one form or another, operators, log managers and support persons. Most of the Auxiliarists in the room were ham radio operators allowing us to switch job functions as needed or requested.

USCG Station Jones Beach provided great support. From 0900 to 1530 they provided breakfast, lunch and lots of coffee. The personnel at the Coast Guard station assisting us with the antenna setup, great cooking, and the many other things that arose during the day. “The success of the day would not have been possible without the great assist by CG Station Jones Beach,” said one of the event organizers.

A special thank you to Gordon Sammis, District Communication Officer (DSO-CM), who smoothed the coordination of event across two Divisions, Hal Marschall, Division Captain 13, for his support and assist provided by Division 13 side, Rich Zwirlein, Division Communication Officer (SO-CM), for orchestrating the logistics and coordinating the efforts between the active duty and the Auxiliary. Thanks also go out to Ronn Tomo, for helping get the Division 13 radio stations operational, and Ken Sommers, Vice Captain. 13 and his photo group for capturing our event in pictures. Lastly, George Tranos, Amateur Radio Relay League (ARRL) Section Manager, for acquiring needed antennas from the “LIMARC” Amateur Radio Club and of course, to the Club for providing their support for our special event. A special thanks to all of the Auxiliarists who came to help make the event a GREAT SUCCESS !!!

“Communications is a critical part of our work with the USCG Auxiliary and it's nice to be able to practice our on air skills with events such as this one,” said one of the participants. “The best of all was that we had a great time! Hope to see you next year!”

73's (Ham lingo for best regards)